Lauren Groff
Lauren Groff is an American novelist and short story writer whose work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Five Points, Ploughshares, and Best American Short Stories 2007, 2010, and 1014. She has earned a Pushcart Prize and her novel, Arcadia, was a New York Times bestseller. To date, she has published four novels and eight short stories.
Published 1/8/16
Published 1/8/16
Howl: What is your writing process like?
Groff: I believe in drafting extensively, because I don't want to pay attention to the sentences--the most exciting and joyful part of writing--until the flaws in the foundations of my work have been figured out. It actually saves me a great deal of time to write a few quick drafts in longhand, throwing them out after I finish, to begin again, afresh. It's a way to ensure that I'm not doing stucco-work on a building with no support beams. For a novel, I'll write a fast first draft in about three to four months, throw it out, a slower second draft in about six months, throw it out, and on and on, until the slowest of all last draft, which is generally a transcription from longhand to the computer. And then editing begins.
Howl: How do you edit your work?
Groff: I've found it most helpful to think of editing as a way to fix one thing at a time. I print out the preliminary draft, and, with a list of things that I know I need to fix, I sit down and really focus on a single thing at once. I go through again for the next thing. The very last draft of this round of editing is when I read it aloud and work on the music of the prose. Then I send it out to my readers, integrate their ideas into my next draft, send it out again, ad nauseum. Finally, it gets to my agent, who goes to town. There's no end to anything; there is, however, a place where you can't go on.
Howl: What advice do you have for budding writers?
Groff: There are a million people in the world with great innate writing talent. Persistence and grit are far rarer. Let your defeats only ruin an hour of your life, at most, then get back up, dust off your knees, and push harder. Be ambitious. Don't give up.
Howl: What inspires you to express yourself through writing as opposed to other creative mediums?
Groff: I have no talent in other mediums! I have always been a huge reader, as well, and studied French and English literature in college. Literature is a language that I feel fluent in.
Howl: What are the most common challenges you face as a writer and how do you overcome them?
Groff: The biggest challenges lie in my own fear and doubt. The white page is sometimes terrifying. The only way to overcome them is to do it on a granular level: concentrate on writing this line, then the next, then the next. It's about working every day, without fail, with patience and joy.
Groff: I believe in drafting extensively, because I don't want to pay attention to the sentences--the most exciting and joyful part of writing--until the flaws in the foundations of my work have been figured out. It actually saves me a great deal of time to write a few quick drafts in longhand, throwing them out after I finish, to begin again, afresh. It's a way to ensure that I'm not doing stucco-work on a building with no support beams. For a novel, I'll write a fast first draft in about three to four months, throw it out, a slower second draft in about six months, throw it out, and on and on, until the slowest of all last draft, which is generally a transcription from longhand to the computer. And then editing begins.
Howl: How do you edit your work?
Groff: I've found it most helpful to think of editing as a way to fix one thing at a time. I print out the preliminary draft, and, with a list of things that I know I need to fix, I sit down and really focus on a single thing at once. I go through again for the next thing. The very last draft of this round of editing is when I read it aloud and work on the music of the prose. Then I send it out to my readers, integrate their ideas into my next draft, send it out again, ad nauseum. Finally, it gets to my agent, who goes to town. There's no end to anything; there is, however, a place where you can't go on.
Howl: What advice do you have for budding writers?
Groff: There are a million people in the world with great innate writing talent. Persistence and grit are far rarer. Let your defeats only ruin an hour of your life, at most, then get back up, dust off your knees, and push harder. Be ambitious. Don't give up.
Howl: What inspires you to express yourself through writing as opposed to other creative mediums?
Groff: I have no talent in other mediums! I have always been a huge reader, as well, and studied French and English literature in college. Literature is a language that I feel fluent in.
Howl: What are the most common challenges you face as a writer and how do you overcome them?
Groff: The biggest challenges lie in my own fear and doubt. The white page is sometimes terrifying. The only way to overcome them is to do it on a granular level: concentrate on writing this line, then the next, then the next. It's about working every day, without fail, with patience and joy.